Keeping Students Actively Engaged Using Technology: 2011

There are several different approaches to actively engage students during early literacy instruction. Guided reading is a method that numerous teachers use to offer instruction that scaffolds the learning and engages the learner. This method leads to high-achieving students. For a more effective type of coaching, guided reading consists of small groups. The teacher carefully observes each of the students in the group. However, the big question is how can the students that aren’t actively engaged during guided reading become actively engaged?

Incorporating technology into the classroom is a great way for students to become actively engaged during literacy instruction (Solvie, 2004). Utilizing a digital whiteboard will create a learning environment for early literacy while keeping the students engaged.

It is my belief that a digital whiteboards foster students learning both visually and kinesthetically. By having students look on the whiteboard, this requires students to utilize visual astuteness. The whiteboard also aids in children maintaining focus and attentiveness.

Technology is rapidly increasing in children's everyday lives. Because of this, it is beneficial for teachers as well as parents to gain knowledge in new literacies such as keyboarding, word processing, Internet research skills, multimedia production, and social networking. Bringing new literacies into a classroom is not an easy task for some teachers, especially when two thirds of teachers feel underprepared to use technology (Kajder, 2005). New literacy includes digital and media technologies. Many teachers are very comfortable with the paper and pen model. However, technology is proving to be valuable in support of effective reading and writing instruction, universal access to instructional materials, assessment, professional collaboration, and home-to-school communication (Kajder, 2005).

More elementary classrooms should focus on the importance of technology in the classroom. Technologies such as the computer and the digital whiteboard are not just fads that will soon die out. Incorporating technology in the classroom is essential to the building of children’s cognitive, physical, and social skills. Although having technology in the classroom will aid the children in learning, the cost is extremely expensive. The computers, the equipment, the software, the training and supplies are all necessary features that are part of the equation that guarantees a successful classroom computer experience. Visual learning can result in increased engagement as well as increased complexity, depth, and breadth of experience to improve student academic performances (Fadel, 2006).

Check out this vey informative article. It explains several ways in which technology can enhance the classroom. http://www.neamb.com/home/1216_2782.htm

Works cited

Barone, D., & Wright, T.E. (2008, December). Literacy Instruction With Digital and Media Technologies. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292–302.

Solvie, P. A. (2004, February). The digital whiteboard: A tool in early literacy instruction (Teaching Tips department). The Reading Teacher, 57 (5), 484-487.

Kajder, S. (2005). Not quite teaching for real: Preservice secondary English teachers' use of technology in the field following completion of an instructional technology methods course. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 22(1), 15-33.

Fadel, C., & Lemke, C. (2006). Technology in Schools: What the Research Says. Retrieved March 13, 2008, from www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/TechnologyinSchoolsReport.pdf.

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